Core license compliance

[iscgonzalez]

Hello Guys,

I'm curious, we have a 8 cores license for our SAS installation, but the management wants to adquire a new server with 16 cores, now that there is budget, so the plan would be to upgrade our license in some time. Is there going to be any license compliance? I've read multiple opinions that say it will, and others that say it won't since the sas software limits itself to use only the number of cores licensed.

Any clue?

[nhvdwalt]

Hi @iscgonzalez 

I would recommend that you get in touch with your SAS Account Executive to discuss any implications.

[Reeza]

Talk to SAS because part of how it limits may be by only allowing installations on specific set ups. This has likely changed so I'm probably wrong, but you very much want to verify that before you migrate. 

[SASKiwi]

You would definitely need to upgrade your licence to 16 cores to be compliant from a contract perspective. I don't think there would be any problems with SAS continuing to run OK if you did the upgrade without a licence change. The worst that could happen is SAS would still continue to use only 8 cores. But as advised, talk to your SAS account manager.

[iscgonzalez]

I have some questions regarding this. 

1. Does the SAS software on linux auto-limits itself to use the licensed number of cores, even if the hardware is bigger?

2. if so, is there any kind of documentation for this? I have looked at the cpu count option but, I don't think that really limits the usage of the hardware. I read http://support.sas.com/kb/45/225.html where it says that A SAS installation that uses a sub-capacity license file will fail because the installation detects that the number of allowed CPUs has been exceeded.

Any comments?

[SASKiwi]

My only experience with this is SAS VA running on Windows Server 2012 R2. We are licensed for 32 cores but our app server has 64 cores. VA works fine but only uses 32 cores.

SAS Environment Manager will show you how many cores are being used.

[MargaretC]

No, SAS does not auto-limit itself to use the licensed number of cores.
Margaret

[SASKiwi]

@MargaretC - OK, in that case when I see Environment Manager not monitoring cores beyond the licensed core count that just relates to monitoring, not actual usage?